The following article is one that will hopefully reach non-shooters and encourage them to question the system and the agendas that are at play.
As many of you are aware, firearms owners are just one of the many groups of society that are often pre-emptively punished for the actions of what criminals and madmen have done or the fear of what they may do.
Firearms enthusiasts face increasingly draconian and arbitrary restrictions whether it is certain bans for the sake of it, increased medical checks and costs because people don’t seem to want to take responsibility for making decisions, pay for the checks they want to impose on us or perhaps it is just to put more people off by adding another hurdle.
If you look at the history of Firearms legislation in the UK the 1920 Firearms Act the first real act that restricted the “right to bear arms in the UK” a right that existed for centuries and was indeed an inspiration behind the United States Second Amendment.
The public was told this act was because of the threat of increased crime involving firearms. The real reason was the Government of the day feared an uprising of the working classes, many of whom would come back from the great war to poor quality housing, lack of jobs but skilled in warfare. There was a paranoia within Government fuelled by the recent Russian Revolution. Indeed, now not only was shooting and hunting wildly accepted and encouraged but people could carry firearms for personal protection and there were even occasions where the unarmed UK police were assisted by armed citizens to apprehend terrorists (Tottenham Outrage).
It was not about safety it was about power and control.
Now moving on 100 years it seems that politicians have continued this trend of increased restrictions on many things in the name of “Public Safety” or to protect us from ourselves (sugar tax anyone?), something which I don’t believe I nor anyone has asked for.
Firearms owners are an easy target, we have been the scapegoats several times as a distraction for the authorities’ failures to protect individuals or to enforce the laws in place at the time. Rather than address the issues their answer is to create more laws that only the law-abiding will obey.
Recently we have seen another attack on firearms owners thrown in with legislation on acid attacks. Again, we are seeing paranoia from the state set in by exhibiting a desire to restrict certain categories of firearms because of what criminals or terrorists MIGHT do. I believe it incredibly disingenuous to have legal firearms never involved in any crimes to be thrown into a consultation related to acid attacks. A horrific subject which will have caused much fear and concern amongst the public to the media highlighting these terrible attacks. We come back to exploiting such fear and ignorance to further an unrelated agenda.
Criminals and terrorists have shown they are quite capable of obtaining firearms illegally and even then, it seems the weapon of choice is the vehicle and knife. So why is the focus on people who aren’t the problem?
In the United States, gun ownership has increased dramatically, yet violent crime and gun homicide has fallen. Reports from the Centre for Disease Control estimate that 2.5 million crimes per year are stopped by legal gun owners, far more than the number of gun crimes committed. There are several studies by the likes of Gary Kleck, or John R Lott that disprove any relationship between increased gun ownership and increased crime and some studies to suggest that it can reduce crime. This is information that won’t be presented to you in the UK media.
In the UK after the handgun ban, handgun crime doubled and has never dropped to zero. Firearms crimes are not recorded separately as legal or illegal firearms. Why? Because legal gun owners are rarely a cause of violence or gun crime. Indeed, it seems knife crime is soaring. Yet the authorities continued response are to bring in more useless legislation and campaigns. (That is when they aren’t policing social media etc…)
I accept that in the UK it is unlikely we will get anything like US concealed carry laws or even Czech Laws which involve a lot of testing and training, that isn’t really the discussion here, I simply want the people who tell us they want to make us safer to tell the truth, that for whatever reasons they actually want power and control over other people’s lives and liberties. Stop pretending it is about public safety.
Now I want to ask you some questions:
Do you really think our laws are about safety?
Do you really think that restricting people who aren’t the problem is going to make you/society safer?
Do you think that forbidding law-abiding people from even having a pepper spray deters criminals or emboldens them?
Do you think it is acceptable to restrict the liberties of innocent people because of what bad or irresponsible people might do? If so what if it was your liberties and not someone else’s?
Do you think it is acceptable to exploit the fear and ignorance of the public to push agendas?
Do you think it is acceptable to mislead the public instead of tackling the real root causes of crime and violence?
I don’t think so, and if you consider yourself a thinker perhaps you should ask yourself, do you really care about being safer or do you just want to listen to the politicians (who I’m sure you agree are so trustworthy) and let them tell you things so you can feel safer. Do you really think they care about your safety when they are going to ignore evidence that suggests the policies that have been pursued for the past 50+ years are not fit for purpose?
Don’t get me wrong I think changing mindsets and educating people on these subjects will be difficult, especially as so many people seem blissfully unaware of such issues. However, I do believe it is time to call out the facade.
Honesty and integrity with policy based on facts is surely something everyone should agree…
Additional Reading:
- https://www.quora.com/How-many-defensive-gun-uses-are-there-in-the-U-S-per-year
- https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmselect/cmhaff/95/95ap25.htm
